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November 14, 2008
My Beautiful Neighborhood IV
I caught this lovely muted composition at one of my favorite places in Los Angeles:
The Griffith Observatory. Love the Agnes Martin-like muted tones that are punched through by little black rectangles into another mysterious dimension—the definition of modern art.
Ordinarily, I like symmetry. But asymmetry has its charms. I have a feeling
that the workers who were inscribing the concrete were not paying close attention
the day they were pouring. Look at the right corner, that's excellent. Now take a look at the left side. Ouch! Guys, next time lay off the Budweiser.
Believe it or not, this is a self-portrait by Karen. What can I say, the love of my life is shy. Look closely and you'll find a small portion of Karen among the many layers of this picture. Karen snapped this in lovely, downtown Oakland.
So: I popped three vegetarian burgers into the oven and then I thought, “I can do
something interesting with these things beside ingest them.” Hence, yours truly dribbled plain yogurt on the burgers, rooted around in my camera bag and pulled out two batteries, noticed that, my gosh, the positive side of the batteries mimics the look of the rivets on my very favorite fork. What could be more natural than to plant the batteries in the yogurt, lay the fork on the plate, and: Snick! Then comes the stunning realization that I cannot eat the burgers because, guh-ross, who knows what stomach burning acids have seeped into the food? Good grief, the sacrifices I make for this blog.
I know that we're in the midst of an economic melt down. Every month I get my financial statement and my heart pounds in my chest like a Gene Krupa solo. Next month I won't even bother opening my statement. I'll make believe it doesn't exist. Anyhoo, now I know things are really bad when NASA has to cut back so severely that their office is on Beverly Drive, in a not too spacious nor elegant shipping container. I mean, this is just sad. One gigoondoo step for mankind—backwards.
A few years ago, we flew to Baltimore to attend the Bar Mitzvah of our cousin Avi K. The simcha was held at the Pearlstone Conference Center. Over a hundred family members, from America and Israel, attended. This was a magical Shabbos, meeting and spending time with nephews, nieces, cousins, uncles and aunts, some of whom we barely knew. The Pearlstone Center is located outside Baltimore, in an idyllic rural area, and though I don't take pictures of trees, flowers or mountains—I'm an urban eye—I did manage to isolate this sc-fi like structure that looks ready for lift-off.
What would Friday be without footwear? Okay, so these are not exactly Manolo Blahnik. But there is a thematic tie-in. Trust me. Remember our cousins the K's from Baltimore? Of course you do. Well, they made aliyah to Israel. Last night I was chatting with Avi's father, my cousin Dr. Jonathan K, and he mentioned that in their household they all don very specific footwear at night because, brrrr, the floors are so chilly and G-d bless my good cousin and his wife Toby, who always provided a warm and loving home-away-from-home for our son Ariel Chaim ZT'L, for the four years he attended Ner Israel Rabbinic Academy in Baltimore. So: Here's the footwear our cousins wear in Mitzpe Netofa where the nights are freezing. Jonathan apologizes for the poor quality of the pic, explains that it was taken with the Mac Front Row application. Perfectly okay. And hey, friends, relatives, feel free to send pics of footwear, with commentary. It's a seriously important issue.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a miracle in Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at November 14, 2008 08:09 AM
Comments
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1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
I think this series of photos proves that you don't necessarily have to be a stoner to find little details fascinating.
But it helps.
Good Shabbos!
Posted by: Jake at November 14, 2008 12:51 PM
Jake, Duuude:
I'm high on life!
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 14, 2008 01:17 PM
Robert - you have an excellent eye for framing, color and composition.
I have always felt a good photographer translates what his mind sees to film.
My family lived in Studio City until 1959. I remember taking some trips up to the Griffith Observatory. If I can recall trhere was a nice park near the base where we used to picnic - or maybe I am confusing the No Hollywood Park
Posted by: Bill Brandt at November 14, 2008 07:35 PM
Gorgeous pictures. I also take a lot of "reflecting" ones.
Posted by: Batya at November 15, 2008 01:01 PM
Wonderful. I love them all. One can certainly see why you chose film as your medium. Keep 'em coming!
Shavua tov (have a good week).
Posted by: Sara at November 15, 2008 01:03 PM
I love that first photo!
Maybe it's because we still have little ones at home, messing around with perfectly good food, but Chana and I both reacted the same way to your caption on the veggie burgers: "Why did he do that? I would have just skimmed off some of the yogurt!"
Posted by: alterbentzion at November 16, 2008 08:17 AM
Wonderful pictures, as usual. The next-to-last one is a bit reminiscent of the old British Mandate-era pillboxes we still have around here.
(By the way, I think you left an italics tag open somewhere.)
Posted by: Rahel at November 16, 2008 10:12 AM
Rahel:
Thanks so much. Yeah, it does look like a pill box. I have settled on full itals for all captions. No rhyme or reason. Just a random style choice.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 16, 2008 10:58 AM